EU to apply Basel rules taking into account Europe's 'specificities'

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said new global banking rules agreed on Thursday will be applied in the European Union taking into account “specificities” of the bloc’s banking sector and making full use of the agreed phase-in period until the end of 2026.

“We are committed to full application”, the Commission’s vice president Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Brussels

commenting the agreement reached earlier on Thursday at the Basel Committee.

But he added the EU will “carefully assess the impact” of

the new rules and the scope of their application before turning them into binding provisions.

Basel rules in Europe in principle would apply to ”basically

all banks” and not only to globally systemic lenders, as it could be the case in other regions, Dombrovskis said.

The wider application is meant to avoid disruptions to

competition but could be calibrated, possibly exempting some banks, if an impact assessment proved that the rules would increase capital requirements.

Dombrovskis said the EU “will use the full time of the phase-in period until the end of 2026,” in applying the output floor agreed in Basel to limit banks’ use of their internal models to calculate risk.